Fishing lures in various forms have been available for many years. Almost all lures are designed to resemble fish prey, and are equipped with one or more hooks that are used to catch fish. Most lures are operated with casting and retrieval techniques. Their movements during retrieval may simulate swimming prey in order to attract fish. Some fish can also be attracted by sound as lures are pulled through the water. For this reason some lures include devices such as rattles to assist with catching fish.
Hard bodied lures, such as, for example, so called ‘spinners’, ‘plugs’ or ‘wobblers’, are designed to be cast using spin or bait casting reels and rods. Most hard body lures are fitted with treble hooks as they are very effective at hooking fish. These lures tend to have sufficient weight to be cast without the need of additional tackle such as sinkers or the like. Some hard body lures have bibs, or swim lips, that in combination with the body shape and configuration of the lure enable the lure to move, dart or vibrate as it is wound or reeled in. This particular movement is considered to be very advantageous when fishing for most fish species.
In fly fishing, fish are caught by using an artificial fly lure that is cast with a fly rod and a fly line. The fly line is generally coated with plastic such that it is heavy enough to send a fly to a target area. Traditionally, flies have been created by tying hair, fur, feathers and/or other materials onto a hook with thread. The flies are tied and materials arranged in sizes and colours to match local terrestrial and aquatic insects and other fish food attractive to the target fish species.
Traditional flies tend to come in one of two basic forms, namely in a wet or dry fly format. As the name suggests, wet flies are designed to be fully or partially submerged during use, whilst dry flies are only fished on the water surface. Dry flies tend to imitate insects or animals that might land on or emerge from the water's surface, such as, for example, dragonflies, frogs or grasshoppers. Wet or subsurface flies often resemble aquatic animals, as for example, baitfish, prawns, or crabs or resemble insect larvae.
Unlike hard bodied lures that can be easily cast due to their weight, fly fishing relies on the rhythm imparted to the fly rod and fly line, with the fly trailing, to project the fly to a target fishing area. Holding the fly rod in one hand and the fly line down by the reel with the other, an angler must work line out of the reel a bit at a time whilst at the same time casting the rod back and forth, this action is known as ‘false casting’. When desired on a forward cast, as the fly is pulled forward by the momentum imparted by the fly rod, the angler can let go of the fly line allowing the fly to project forward to the target fishing area. The fly then lands on the water surface awaiting an unsuspecting fish to strike.
Due to the nature of the design of existing flies, most tend to rely primarily on the materials used in their construction to provide movement, or to add life, to the fly. There have been many attempts to incorporate bibs, or swim lips, on flies so that they too will dart or vibrate when drawn through the water. However, due to the mechanical motion of false casting, protruding bibs more often than not cause drag when casting which can result in flies spinning severely, making it difficult, if not impossible, to cast the required distance. Aside from casting difficulties, a spinning fly can also lead to a badly tangled fly line.
One of the most frustrating problems faced by anglers, whether using hard body lures or flies, is the tendency of hooks or lures to get snagged on foreign matter during use. Snagging commonly results in loss of the lure and/or other tackle since retrieval of that tackle is generally not possible after snagging. Aside from being frustrating and time consuming given the time it takes to re-rig a fishing line, the loss of tackle due to snagging can be an expensive exercise, as the cost of replacement of tackle can be high.
In view of this problem, many anti-snag devices have been developed over the years in an attempt to minimise or eliminate hooks from snagging. Most known anti-snag devices utilise trailing pieces, or loops, of wire or monofilament attached to the lure which serve to deflect foreign matter away from the lure during use, so that the lure does not become snagged.